Tonight’s concert with Ronan Tynan and the BPO was abso-fucking-lutely amazing. The only way it would have been more abso-fucking-lutely amazing if Katebits had been playing in the BPO tonight.

It was a great mix of Irish music, pop music (Springsteen!), show tunes and holiday music. He sang some of my favorite songs:

Hallelujah – he made it upbeat, which I didn’t think was possible with this song.

Smile – which, believe it or not, was written by Charlie Chaplin. I’m just familiar with the Nat King Cole version, which is heartbreaking.

Ave Maria – which always reminds me of the first West Wing Big Block of Cheese episode, Josh asks CJ if she knows the piece, and her response is a simple “I’m Catholic,” with a smirk. I’m not doing it justice, but it leads into a great scene with Bradley Whitford and Allison Janney.

Danny Boy – I can’t hear Danny Boy without thinking of that stupid Saved By The Bell episode where Slater’s lizard Artie dies, and they have a funeral for it. They bastardize Danny Boy as “oh artie boy, the ponds, the ponds are calling, there’s gnats and ants, mosquitoes on the fly.” I can’t remember what I had for dinner last night, but this stupid moment sticks in my head.

The BPO provided the Christmas music, with Greensleeves, Sleigh Ride and Pachelbel’s Canon.

Now onto the important stuff: the performances of Miller and Stafford. Both came out in jeans and boots. Staffy wore a simple black button-down shirt untucked and Miller wore a green striped button down shirt (tucked in, which…NO!) and what was either a grey or brown jacket. Staffy definitely looked more comfortable in his own skin, on the guitar and on the stage. He moved around the stage really well, and was in complete control of his instrument (hee!). Miller seemed rooted to one spot and was carefully going through the songs. I don’t know if Staffy’s got more experience with the guitar or a better ear for music, but he’s got a stage presence. He really was smoking hot. (Side note, I checked the team roster, and Miller and Staffy are the same height, but Staffy has almost 35 pounds on Miller. Can someone please feed our goalie a sammich or something? Poor boy looks like he’s wasting away.)

Tynan admonished Staffy that he needs to take better care of himself, since we need him around for this season and next. Stafford sheepishly took Tynan’s advice. Tynan also brought the two of them souvenirs from his recent USO tour to Bagram, Afghanistan. While Staffy and Miller were setting up their guitars, some yahoo in the crowd started a “Let’s Go Buffalo” chant, which Tynan then proceeded to lead from the stage, and Staffy accompanied on the guitar.

After that ruckus, they were on stage for two songs by U2: I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For and All I Want is You. Tynan did change the lyrics so that we were looking for Stanley and all I Want Is Stanley. He wants to make this into a yearly event, saying how much fun this would be next year with Stanley in the middle of the stage. Miller and Stafford just laughed at that one.

Spotted in the crowd were: Larry Quinn (I was sending him “sign Soupy now and cheap” vibes), former Rep. Jack Quinn, Ed Kilgore of WGRZ (who surprisingly was not working the room on the intermission), the Sabres goalie coach and the Sabres PR guy. I did not see Lindy or Darcy, but they could have been there for all I know.

It was a great show. I really would recommend going to see him if you ever have the opportunity.

In anticipation of Staffy and Miller’s debut with the BPO tonight, Buffalo News music critic Jeff Miers profiled these two players’ musical tastes and talents. I’m really amused by the fact that Staffy and Lydman can only play their Scandinavian heavy metal music when they’re the only two players at the rink. I had no idea Scandinavia was such a source of heavy metal music.

The below just sounds really adorable:

During a photo shoot at HSBC Arena, Miller and Stafford play a bit while posing with their guitars, and the personality of each comes through, even in this off-the-cuff manner. Miller plays a supportive role with sparse chords; Stafford can clearly play fast runs, and hilariously assumes the rock “power-stance,” or adopts the Van Halen-esque “both hands on the neck” finger-tapping technique while making “guitar faces,” much to Miller’s amusement.

What in the hell is a guitar face? Is that like an O face?

The article in the printed edition of the paper also includes a look at what bands these two are listening to. Crunchy likes the White Stripes and Led Zepplin (can he play Stairway to Heaven?), while Staffy likes a bunch of metal bands. The title quote of this entry is from Staffy, eloquent as always.

Does Crunchy own an entire closet full of hoodies or other zip top jacket/sweater combos? And holy hairy forearms, Staffy. However, the both of them can just carry on with how they look in this photo.

God Bless YouTube (and its parent company Google). Look what came up on the related links for Miller’s NHL Ice Bowl promo.

Words fail me, though Miller looks pretty good up there.

Here’s the actual version of New Orleans Is Sinking by The Hip for comparison’s sake.

Its also been brought to my attention that Stafford is going to be out for a while with a concussion. I hope his concussion does not prevent him from joining the BPO and Ronan Tynan this weekend. I’m going to be at that show and will be disappointed if Staffy does not perform as advertised. Of course, watch his performance just be a “ding” on the triangle or something.

Goose and Afinogenov are also nursing injuries. Goose has a sprained arm that may keep him out of action against the Devils. Max has a groin problem. While groin injuries are never funny, Lindy’s word choices in describing Max’s injury are. He said Max “felt his groin” and “we got him off out there.” Scuse me, Lindy? Run that one by me again.

Today’s title courtesy of the Goose, tonight’s Mic’d Up player. During a stoppage in play, they showed Chad Michael Murray (henceforth CMM) on the Jumbotron, and Goose remarked on the bench to Yo-Yo that CMM has to be a made-up name. Yo-Yo had no opinion on the subject.

Two of my former co-workers went to high school with CMM, and have attested repeatedly that CMM is his real name. In fact, it would freak out one of those co-workers if we referred to CMM as CMM instead of just Chad Murray.

I never thought I’d be referring to CMM on this blog, so there you go.

Speaking of the Goose, he was hitting everything that moved out there. He’s currently the Sabres hit leader, with 79 hits. Combining his hitting role with his new role as goalie roadblock on the power play really makes Goose a better all-around player. I know Darcy has said he’s not going to let a player like Goose go, but Darcy really needs to sign Goose’s RFA ass before someone makes an offer sheet.

The officiating tonight was horrible. The refs clearly missed a hooking call on Derek Roy. Its a shame that Roy’s reputation as a diver has precluded referees from calling penalties against him. Peters also got called for a 10 minute misconduct when all he did was yap at the Ottawa player (who was doing enough of his own yapping back, thank you very much). There was also the missed interference call on Chris Neil on Crunchy, leading to an Ottawa goal.

Its not Sabres related, but during the Rangers / Hurricanes game, Colton Orr leveled a nasty hit on the Hurricanes Matt Cullen. Cullen was knocked cold, but managed to leave the ice with assistance, rather than on a stretcher. I think it was a borderline hit, with perhaps not the intent to injure, but it still did not look good. Props to Commodore for stepping up and defending his teammate.

I’m coming out of my Christmas coma to report on a feature I saw on WIVB. They asked the Sabres what were their best and worst Christmas gifts they’ve received. Some of them are better worse gifts than others:

Peters – a muzzle

Goose – peanuts

Spacek – not a gift, but his tree fell over last year while watching cartoons with his son. Its all in Jaro’s delivery and accent, but he had a sheepish “I not do good job to tree” thing going on.

Hank – underwears. He was kind of reluctant to reveal that he received underwear, but the reporter beat it out of him.

Pommers – a Speedo. Pommers also included an explanation of what a Speedo was (for those of us that are clueless.)

So just remember, as you’re opening that hideous reindeer sweater from Aunt Maude, that you too could have received peanuts or a Speedo instead.

Since the NHL is in a two-day shutdown for the holidays, Shots Off the Crossbar will be taking a brief break from hockey to share in the Christmas joy (or TV marathons, if you’re a dork like me. I’ve discovered that there’s a I Heart the 80s/90s marathon on today, and a Mythbusters marathon tomorrow. Nothing says happy holidays like blowing stuff up).

While poking around on YouTube for a Christmas video for this entry, I discovered that I was not hallucinating that there once was a Christmas special where the Muppet Show Muppets united with the Sesame Street Muppets for one happy holiday fiesta. For the longest time, I was the only person that remembered this special actually existed. Most of my co-workers and friends are of the same age, so them not remembering really made me feel like I was hallucinating. In case anyone’s wondering, a Muppet Family Christmas was the name of this special.

Before I go, I just want to share one of my favorite Christmas videos.

May all of you have a happy holiday and may all your Christmas wishes come true! Catch you on Boxing Day for a Sabres / Sens rematch.